Flyers Pre-Game: Wings bring a depleted challenge tonight

PHILADELPHIA - For fans who like the idea of watching a win more than they like the idea of a fully competitive game, the Flyers present a home date against the partial Detroit Red Wings tonight at Wells Fargo Center.

Not only have the Red Wings been a different team when dubbed the visitors this season -- that's a 16-16-1 road record vs. a 27-4-2 home record for Detroit - but the Wings likely will be missing a few of their best players.

Apparently out for the game are captain and top defenseman Nicklas Lidstrom (ankle), top scorer Pavel Datsyuk (knee), and power forward Todd Bertuzzi and goalie Jimmy Howard (both with groin woes).

"Anytime you take big pieces out of a team there's a difference," Flyers coach Peter Laviolette said today. "They still probably play with the same identity and the same style they've played with for years, but I think if you start removing pieces it gets more challenging."

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That said, Laviolette approaches this team with appropriate caution: "They're a good hockey team. They've been good for a lot of years. Good players."

There are even a few good Wings healthy enough to play. A few. Also out tonight are Wings defenders Jon Ericsson and Jakub Kindl.

"He said what it is (on the passport) and I said, 'Yeah, that's right,'" said Grossman ... well, now Grossmann.

As of yesterday afternoon, the Flyers were still in the process of trying to replace the name label on the back of all his shirts to accommodate the extra N. That's something the Dallas Stars' staff didn't do in Grossmann's six seasons there.

"I guess I was young and just didn't want to say anything," Grossmann said. "I was just happy to have a jersey with my name on it. I have to throw it out there ... World Wide Web."

OK, so he's a little behind digitally, too.

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NOTES: While many familiar faces were MIA in the Flyers' locker room for the morning skate - it was an optional - one full stall and nameplate was absent, too. Kimmo Timonen, identified by GM Paul Holmgren Saturday as out "indefinitely" with a lower body injury, was the only regular player not only not there, but without visible equipment and locker space. Not sure what it means, though Timonen is said to be suffering from lower back issues. ... Should be a nice ceremony before the game tonight when Mark Howe, an all-timer of a defenseman for the Flyers and Wings, gets his jersey raised to the Wells Fargo rafters. ... Grossmann, when asked if he signed with two n's when scribbling all those autographs during his days in Dallas: "You can't really read, anyway, what the autographs say. They put that name on the shirt and I've just been going with it."